Process of transferring designs to cylindrical surfaces.



'J. JAGOBSON. PBOGESSDF TRANSFERRING DESIGNS T0 GYiINDEICAL SURFACES.

APPLICATION IILED JARI. 16, 19 05. ERNEWBI? NOV, 2, 1908.

'- 'Patnteq Dec. 29, 1908.

, the other.

UNITE!) STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN JAOOBSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS. TO WEAVE-PRINL COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PROCESS OF TRANSFERRING DESIGNS TO CYLINDRICAL SURFACES.

7 Specification ofLette rs Patent.

Patented Dec. 29, 1908.

Application filed. January 16, 1905, Serial No. 241,334. Renewed November 2. 1908. Serial No. 460,766.

To all whomct may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN JACOBSON, of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Processes of Transferring Designs to Cylindrical Surfaces, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specificat1on.

The present invention relates to a process of producing a printing roller, the purpose being to obtain a roller having a printing surface capable of transferring to the printed material an exact reproduction of a given design, the process of produ ng th roller being a photographic process.

In carrying out the invention, a flat plate is produced with a relief surface in the form of a design, it being essential that the two ends of the design should exactly match for some little distance. For example, if the design has been photographed from a model liable to distortion, such, for example as lace or other fabric, it is necessary to arrange for an exact correspondence of the design at one end of the plate with that of This late is made of yielding material so as to lie capable of transferring a coating, such as an acid resist, to a smooth, hard surface, as that of a roller.

In accordance with the process involving the resent invention the surface of the plate is inlrcd, 'i. e. coated with the substance to be transferred'such as acid resist, and the printing roller which is to beproduced is rolled over the inked plate, so that the resist is transferred to the surface of the roller in the form of the design. The roller can then be completed by any well-known etching process.

it is essential, however, that the design should extend completely around the roller with no visible break or variation, and this is accomplished, as follows. As previously stated the flat plate is so prepared that the units of the design near one end will exactly match or conform to those at the other end, and the plate is made somewhat longer than the periphery of the roller to which the design is to be transferred.

The roller, so positioned as to stand exactl at a right angle to the design on the late, is then let down upon the surface of i the plate and rolled along the same for a llittle more than one complete revolution. This causes the ends of the transfer to overlap, but as the design at one end of the plate exactly corresponds to that at the other, the units will fall one over another, with no visible line of junction. Since it is impracticable, especially in a design which constitutes a copy ofa fabric, to make the circumference of the roller of the exact size to take in a definite number of repetitions of the units of the design, so that the matched ends will overlap, as described, the peripheral velocity-of the rolled is slightly varied from normal, during its complete revolution, i. e. during that part of its travel in which the design is transferred com letely around the roller before overlapping. f, for example, the distance between the exactly matched parts of p the design, is slightly less than the distance around the roller, the roller is given a revolving movement slightly in excess of its normal rolling movement, sufficient, of course, merely to cause the part first transferred to finally reach a position where it will exactly match the design at the other end of the plate. If, on the contrary, the distance between the matched parts is greater than he distance around the roller, the revolving movement is retarded.

in order to fully illustrate the process, conventional drawings are annexed hereto, in which Figure 1 represents a roller and a plate at the beginning of the process; and Fig. 2 the same at the end of the process.

At the beginning of the process, the roller (1. is let down into contact with the surface of the plate, being shown as mounted on supports 1) indicated as pivoted at ff, so that, by a movement on the pivot, the roller can be lowered from a point above the plate into contact with the surface of the plate. The roller is then rolled along into contact with the surface to transfer the design, and is lifted from the plate by a corresponding sup port I) at the opposite end shortly after the two ends of the design overlap.

The peripheral velocity of the roller may be varied from normal, as, for example, by means of a gear 0 and rack d, the latter being longitudinally moved in either direction, it

direct on as the travel of the. roller, the rate "of rotation will be decreased, and vice versa.

' s onding to Since the transfer of the acid resist to the surface of the roller is not the final step in the process, the amount of variation in the peripheral speed of the roller may be readily determined by experiment, the resist being washed off after each trial. The rate of rotation of the roller may be easily controlled by the use of an apparatuswhich forms the subject-matter of an application filed 'ointly July 25, 1904, by John Jacobson and John Tooker, Ser. No. 218,170, 'such apparatus, however, forming no part of the present invention.

'lhe overlapping parts of thedesign are of very s li 'ht extent and are transferred respectively as the roller comes into contact with the plate and is lifted out of contact therewithin other words where the impression is lightest; and the double impression therefore does not transfer any more material than the single impression in the body of the design where the pressure is greater.

I have found from practical trsts, that it is possible, by this process to transfer a design to a cylindrical surface with such accu-.

racy that it IS impossible to detect any imperfection, or to discover thefpart correthe meeting point of the ends of e d esign, even by the aid of a powerful magnifying glass. It is thoroughly practicable, therefore, to transfer, after any suitablepreliminary photographic process of obtaimng a hat plate, the most dtlicate decylindrical surface more t the surface to which it and with the units of the design near one d signs to cylindrical surfaces for printing puroses; and at far less expense t an is possifile by a mechanical process.

What I claim is: v

1. The herein described rocess of transferring a design to a cy indrical surface which consists informing on a platea design in which the units of the design near one end 45 exactly match the units of the design near the otherend; inking said late; rolling the an a complete revolution in contact with said plate; and decreasing the pressure of the cylindrical surface against the plate at the beginning and end of the rollingmovement Where the jdesign parts overlap on the cylindrical suf ace.

ferring a design to a cylindrical surface which consists in forming on a plate a design somewhat longer than the circumference. of

is to be transfe d 1, exactly matching those near the other; ,lc ing said plate; rolling the'cylindrical surface along the inked surface of said plate in peripheral contact therewith; and varying the peripheral velocity of said surface from normal during the,period of rolling contact.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

JonN JACOBSON.- Witnesses: J CHESTER KASBROUCK,

H. GRATTAN Co vINl ii! 2. The herein described process of'trans;- 

